Method and apparatus for effective encoding/decoding using detailed predictive unit

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for encoding images includes: a predictor to determine a prediction unit (PU) mode among a plurality of PU modes indicating types of partition of a current coding unit (CU) into one or more prediction units (PUs), and generate a predicted block of the current CU by performing an intra prediction or an inter prediction for each PU of the determined PU mode, wherein a size of the current CU is 2N×2N, and the plurality of PU modes includes 2N×hN or hN×2N PU mode in which the current CU is partitioned into PUs respectively having a size of 2N×hN or hN×2N, h being a fractional number smaller than 1; a subtractor to subtract the predicted block from the current CU to generate a residual block; a transformer to transform the residual block into a frequency domain to generate a frequency one or more transform blocks.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/282,462 filed on May 20, 2014, which is a continuation ofInternational Patent Application No. PCT/KR2012/009966, filed Nov. 23,2012, which claims priorities to Korean Patent Application No.10-2011-0123839, filed on Nov. 24, 2011 and Korean Patent ApplicationNo. 10-2012-0133508, filed on Nov. 23, 2012. The disclosures of theabove-listed application are hereby incorporated by reference herein intheir entirely.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method forencoding/decoding video which improve the coding performance in theprocess of an inter prediction from a reference frame on the basis ofcoding unit (CU).

BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background informationrelated to the present disclosure and do not constitute prior art.Further, as the statements in this section describe a technologycorresponding to the background information, the contents of thebackground art are incorporated into the method and apparatus forencoding/decoding according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Video compression technology experts gathered by MPEG(moving picture experts group) and VCEG (video coding experts group)have formed their joint team called JCT-VC (joint collaborative team onvideo coding). JCT-VC is working for the standardization of the proposedstandard called HEVC (high efficiency video coding) toward thedevelopment of a new high-quality, high-performance and high-efficiencyvideo compression technology with improved compression performance ofabout 50% or more than the state of H.264/AVC (advanced video coding).HEVC has been started with the aim of achieving a high quality/highperformance compression technology with a compression rate that has beenimproved over the technology of the existing H.264/AVC and adoptedvarious methods of encoding, leading to a significant development interms of improving the image quality and performance than the existingstandard technology.

SUMMARY

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, anapparatus for encoding images comprises a predictor, a subtractor, atransformer, a quantizer and a bitstream generator. The predictor isconfigured to determine a prediction unit (PU) mode among a plurality ofPU modes indicating types of partition of a current coding unit (CU)into one or more prediction units (PUs), and generate a predicted blockof the current CU by performing an intra prediction or an interprediction for each PU of the determined PU mode, wherein a size of thecurrent CU is 2N×2N, and the plurality of PU modes includes 2N×hN orhN×2N PU mode in which the current CU is partitioned into PUsrespectively having a size of 2N×hN or hN×2N, h being a fractionalnumber smaller than 1. The subtractor is configured to subtract thepredicted block from the current CU to generate a residual block. Thetransformer is configured to transform the residual block into afrequency domain to generate one or more transform blocks. The quantizeris configured to quantize the transform blocks. And the bitstreamgenerator is configured to encode the quantized transform blocks andinformation on the determined PU mode into a bitstream.

In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, anapparatus for decoding images comprises a decoder, an inverse quantizer,an inverse transformer, a predictor and an adder. The decoder isconfigured to decode one or more quantized transform blocks from abitstream and extract PU mode information indicating a prediction unit(PU) mode of a current coding unit (CU) among a plurality of PU modesrelating to types of partition of the current CU into PUs, wherein asize of the current CU is 2N×2N and the plurality of PU modes include2N×hN or hN×2N PU mode in which the current CU is partitioned into PUsrespectively having a size of 2N×hN or hN×2N, h being a fractionalnumber smaller than 1. The inverse quantizer is configured to inverselyquantize the quantized transform blocks to generate transform blocks.The inverse transformer is configured to inversely transform thetransform blocks to reconstruct a residual block of the current CU. Thepredictor is configured to generate a predicted block of the current CUby predicting each PU within the current CU based on the PU modeinformation. And the adder is configured to add the reconstructedresidual block and the generated predicted block to thereby reconstructthe current CU.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 a diagram of an example CU which is a coding unit.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of the types of PUs and the prediction sequence ofPUs in a CU.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of the directions of intra-prediction modes.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of locations of adjacent PUs, from which informationfor motion vector prediction can be obtained in the current frame.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a video encoding apparatusaccording to at least one exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a video decoding apparatusaccording to at least one exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of exemplary types of prediction units encoded in aCU and a prediction sequence of the PUs according to at least oneexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of a motion information merging process applied tothe PUs shown in FIG. 7 providing the similar effect as the PUs shown inFIG. 2.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a video encoding method according to at leastone exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a video decoding method according to at leastone exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a diagram of PU partitions of the current CU and thelocations of adjacent CUs available for use in motion information mergefor each PU.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, a video encoding apparatus and/or a video decodingapparatus according to one or more embodiments correspond to a userterminal device (“terminal device” will be hereinafter referred to as“terminal”) such as a PC (personal computer), notebook computer, PDA(personal digital assistant), PMP (portable multimedia player), PSP(PlayStation Portable), wireless communication terminal, smart phone, TVand the like. A video encoding apparatus and/or a video decodingapparatus according to one or more embodiments are a server terminalsuch as an application server, service server and the like. A videoencoding apparatus and/or a video decoding apparatus according to one ormore embodiments mean various apparatuses each including (a) acommunication apparatus such as a communication modem and the like forperforming communication with various types of devices or awired/wireless communication networks, (b) a memory for storing variousprograms and data that encode or decode a video or perform aninter/intra-prediction for encoding or decoding, and (c) amicroprocessor to execute a program so as to perform calculation andcontrolling, and the like.

Further, a video encoded into a bitstream by the video encodingapparatus is transmitted in real time or non-real-time to the videodecoding apparatus through wired/wireless communication networks such asthe Internet, wireless personal area network (WPAN), wireless local areanetwork (WLAN), WiBro (wireless broadband, aka WiMax) network, mobilecommunication network and the like or through various communicationinterfaces such as a cable, a universal serial bus (USB) and the like.According to one or more embodiments, the bitstream is decoded in thevideo decoding apparatus and is reconstructed to a video, and the videois played back.

In general, a video is formed of a series of pictures (also referred toherein as “images” or “frames”), and each picture is divided intopredetermined regions such as blocks. The divided blocks are classifiedinto an intra block or an inter block depending on an encoding scheme.The intra-block refers to a block that is encoded based on anintra-prediction coding scheme. The intra-prediction coding schemepredicts pixels of a current block by using pixels of blocks that wereencoded and decoded to be reconstructed in a current picture to whichencoding is to be performed, so as to generate a predicted block, andencodes pixel differences between the predicted block and the currentblock. The inter-block means a block that is encoded based on aninter-prediction coding scheme. The inter-prediction encoding schemepredicts a current block in a current picture referring to at least oneprevious picture and/or at least one subsequent picture, so as togenerate a predicted block, and encodes differences between thepredicted block and the current block. Here, a frame that is referred toin encoding or decoding the current picture (i.e., current frame) iscalled a reference frame.

At least one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates toimproving the performance of encoding and decoding, in case ofpartitioning a CU (Coding Unit) into one or more PUs (Prediction Units)and then predicting the partitioned PUs.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of the coding unit abbreviated as CU.The CU is a basic unit for encoding and decoding and has the form of aquad tree. When inspected in detail, FIG. 1 illustrates the largestcoding unit (LCU) of 64×64 set to depth 0, which is recursively encodeddown to depth 3 where CU becomes the size of 8×8.

The CU is then partitioned into basic units for prediction defined as PUand the prediction for each of the partitioned PUs within the CU isperformed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of the types of PUs and the sequence of predictionsof PUs within a single CU.

Referring to FIG. 2, in the CU of size 2N×2N, a prediction using a skipmode is carried out and followed by predictions performed based on thePUs of inter 2N×2N mode, inter 2N×N mode, inter N×2N mode, inter 2N×nUmode, inter 2N×nD mode, inter nL×2N mode, inter nR×2N mode, intra 2N×2Nmode and intra N×N mode. However, in the CU of size 8×8, the predictionsare performed based on the PUs of inter 2N×2N, inter 2N×N, inter N×2N,intra 2N×2N and intra N×N modes. In the 2N×nU, 2N×nD, nL×2N and nR×2Nmodes, n is ½ and the CU is partitioned into two asymmetric blocks. Asshown in FIG. 2, in case of the 2N×nU or 2N×nD modes, the CU ispartitioned into upper and lower blocks of which vertical lengths have aratio of 1:3 or 3:1. In case of the nL×2N or nR×2N modes, the CU ispartitioned into left and right blocks of which horizontal lengths havea ratio of 1:3 or 3:1.

The prediction method is classified into an intra predictive codingmethod for making a prediction by using a predicted value from anencoded block in the current frame under coding process and an interpredictive coding method for predicting the current block by estimatingmotion from the previously reconstructed frame.

The intra predictive method used is a unified intra prediction whichperforms multi-directional predictions by using the values of pixels atthe left, lower left, upper left, upper and upper right sides of thepreviously encoded relevant block. In addition, the intra predictionpredicts by the PU of the same size of 2N×2N as the CU or by the PU ofN×N which is a quarter of the CU.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of the directions of the intra prediction mode.

Referring to FIG. 3, a total of 35 different prediction modes arepresented including DC (direct current) mode, a planar mode and 33different predictively oriented angular modes.

The inter predictive coding method uses motion compensation whichpredicts the current block by a motion estimation from the previouslycoded frame. As a result of the motion compensation, motion informationsuch as a motion vector of the current block, which is needed forsubsequent decoding operation, is generated. The inter prediction isperformed by the 2N×N mode of PUs partitioned as symmetrical and equalupper and lower blocks, or by the N×2N mode of PUs partitioned assymmetrical and equal left and right blocks. Also, the inter predictionis performed by 2N×nU, 2N×nD, nL×2N and nR×2N modes representing PUspartitioned asymmetrically to the upper and lower sides, or left andright sides.

After the motion vector of the current block is obtained, a motionvector error value is generated by calculating difference from a motionvector predicted by way of the motion vector prediction with neighboringPUs within the previously coded frame or the current frame.Alternatively, when the motion vector merging is involved to use, as themotion vector of the current block, the same motion vector as a PUwithin the previously coded frame or the current frame, a flag isgenerated to indicate that the motion vector of the current block isencoded by the motion vector merging.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of the positions (A˜E) of adjacent PUs from whichinformation for motion vector prediction can be obtained in the currentframe.

When the inter prediction or intra prediction makes a predicted block,its predicted values are subtracted from the original pixel values ofthe current block to generate the difference as residual signals.Performing a frequency conversion on the residual signal provides afrequency conversion block which is then quantized to generate a blockof quantized frequency coefficients. The basic unit of transform andquantization is called TU (transform unit). After preforming transformand quantization based on TU, the TU is scanned by a scanning methodwhich depends on the specific conditions, and an entropy coding or othercoding method is applied according to the scanning sequence to generatea bitstream.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a video encoding apparatusaccording to at least one exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

The video encoding apparatus 500 is adapted to subdivide the CU intofine PUs and predict the PUs, and it comprises a predictor 510, asubtractor 520, a transformer 530, a quantizer 540 and a bitstreamgenerator 550 as illustrated in FIG. 5. All or some components of thevideo encoding apparatus 500, such as the predictor 510, the subtractor520, the transformer 530, the quantizer 540 and the bitstream generator550 are implemented by one or more processors and/orapplication-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

The input video to be encoded is input by the unit of CU which is formedas an N×N block wherein N has the size of 2^(n). The CUs are made in theform of a quad tree on which divisions and encodings of CUs arerecursively performed from the largest CU to a specified depth.

Predictions are performed by each prediction unit PU within a CU,wherein the PU is in the form of an N×M block. The PUs include aplurality of inter PUs and intra PUs. Video encoding apparatus 500performs the encoding for each PU of all PU modes, and then a PU modewith the best compression efficiency is determined as the PU mode of theCU. Upon completion of the predictions for each of the PUs, the CU isdivided into transform unit TUs. The TU and PU are irrelevant in sizeand the TU is greater or smaller than the PU. The TUs are quantized andtransformed and then entropy coding or other coding methods are used forencoding information on the determined PU mode. At this time, thereference of compression efficiency is determined by using a ratedistortion cost which includes the number of bits required fortransmission of video information and the value of the differencebetween the original block and the predicted block.

In order to predict the PUs in the current CU, predictor 510 generates apredicted block of the current PU to be encoded by using other frames orby using pixel values of previously encoded pixels in the left, lowerleft, upper left, upper, upper right of the current CU within thecurrent frame. In other words, in the intra prediction mode, predictor510 determines the prediction mode by using information on the left,lower left, upper left, upper, upper right CU reconstructed after anencoding process and uses the determined prediction mode to generate thepredicted block. Whereas, in the inter prediction mode, predictor 510generates motion vectors through motion estimation from the previousframe reconstructed after an encoding process and generates thepredicted block of the current PU by carrying out a motion compensationusing the generated motion vectors. Predictor 510 performs prediction byboth inter prediction method and intra prediction method. Descriptionwill be provided later on using the improved PU mode according to someembodiments of the present disclosure for generating a predicted blockfrom the current CU by way of partitioning the CU into fine PUs.

Subtractor 520 generates a residual signal by calculating the differencebetween the original pixel values of the current block and the predictedvalues of the predicted block generated by predictor 510.

Transformer 530 transforms the residual signal generated by subtractor520 into the frequency domain. Transformer 530 divides the residualsignals of the current CU into TUs and performs the transform for eachof the TUs. The TUs are of N×N block type or N×M block type where N andM are integers different from each other. After the predictions havebeen performed for all PUs within the current CU by the predictor 510,the transformer 530 recursively transforms each TU. The TUs are sizedsmaller than or equal to the corresponding current CU but irrelevant tothe sizes of the PUs. As with CUs, the TUs are in the form of a quadtree. Transforms of TUs are recursively performed from the size of theCU to a specified depth. At this time, a split transform flag for eachdepth of TU is transmitted to a video decoding device to be describedlater, whereby transmitting information on the size of TU having thelowest rate distortion (RD) cost. Here, transformer 530 can generate oneor more transform blocks by transforming the residual signals of each TUinto the frequency domain by using discrete cosine transform (DCT),wavelet transform or a variety of other transform techniques thattransform image signals on the time axis to those on the frequency axis.

Quantizer 540 quantizes one or more transform blocks composed of thefrequency domain residual signals after the transform by transformer530. Quantizer 540 uses dead zone uniform threshold quantization(hereinafter called DZUTQ), quantization weighted matrix or othervarious quantization techniques.

Bitstream generator 550 generates a bitstream by encoding information onthe quantized transform blocks composed of frequency coefficients afterthe quantization by quantizer 540, intra prediction mode, motion vectorand PU mode information indicating by which type the CU is finely splitinto PUs, and the like. The encoding schemes used varys and includes,but not limited to, an entropy encoding scheme.

Inverse quantizer 560 performs an inverse quantization on thetransformed and quantized residual blocks (i.e., the quantized transformblocks), and inverse transformer 570 performs an inverse transform onthe dequantized transform blocks to reconstruct the residual block ofthe current CU. Herein, the inverse transform and inverse quantizationare performed by performing in reverse each of the transform process bytransformer 530 and the quantization performed by quantizer 540. Inversequantization unit 560 and inverse transformer 570 use the transform andquantization information (e.g., information on transform andquantization types) generated by and delivered from transformer 530 andquantizer 540.

Adder 580 adds the predicted block from predictor 510 and the residualblock from transform unit 570 to generate a reconstructed block.

Frame memory 590 stores the reconstructed block from adder 580 for useas a reference block for generating a predicted block in the subsequentprocess of intra or inter prediction.

A following process is performed for generating a predicted block byusing the improved mode of prediction units in accordance with at leastone embodiment of the present disclosure.

To make predictions in predictor 510, the CU is supposed to be dividedinto particular forms of PUs, wherein the finely split PUs are provided.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of exemplary types of encodable PUs and a predictionsequence when encoding a CU including finely split PUs.

FIG. 7 illustrates a single CU with splits of PUs into 2N×hN PUs (whereh=½) each having horizontal length four times the vertical length andhN×2N PUs each having vertical length four times the horizontal length.If the size of CU is 16×16, a single PU is 16×4 or 4×16.

Predictor 510 searches for the predicted block that is most similar tothe pixel values of the original pixels in the PUs of the determinedsizes as above, from within the reference frame stored in frame memory590 without departing from a set search range of the reference frame byway of search methods including, but not limited to, full search methodand diamond search.

The following Equation 1 illustrates an exemplary equation used forfinding the closest predicted block to the values of the original pixelsin the reference block.

$\begin{matrix}{{SAD} = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N}{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{M}\;{{c_{i,j} - r_{i,j}}}}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 1}\end{matrix}$

In Equation 1, c_(i,j) means the original pixel value of a PU andr_(i,j) means the predicted pixel value of the predicted block.Therefore, SAD means the sum of differences between the original pixelvalues in the PU and the pixel values in the predicted block. Predictor510 searches for the block having the minimum SAD in the reference framewithin its search range.

Once the optimal predicted block is searched from within the referenceframe, a motion vector is produced corresponding to the displacement ofeach of the horizontal and vertical axes between predicted block in thereference frame and the PU in the current frame. To reduce the amount ofbitstream used to transmit such generated motion vector to the videodecoding apparatus, the motion vector prediction technology based onEquation 2 below is used, although the motion vector prediction is notlimited thereto but includes other similar methods.mvd=mv−mvp  Equation 2

In Equation 2, my means a motion vector representing the position of thepredicted block searched from the reference frame and mvp corresponds tothe predicted motion vector predicted from the current frame or thereference frame. mvp represents the closest motion vector to the currentblock motion vector among the motion vectors obtained from the adjacentPUs within the current frame or the adjacent PU or PUs within thereference frame, although the closest motion vector is obtainedotherwise. Further, mvd represents the motion vector error (differentialmotion vector) to be transmitted to the video decoding apparatus.

FIG. 4 shows the possible locations by the adjacent PU in the currentframe to determine mvp. The possible locations to determine mvp is notlimited to those presented in FIG. 4 as it is illustrative only. Forexample, the collocated PU in the previous frame is further included.The adjacent PU as expressed in this embodiment includes not only thespatially adjacent PU but also the temporally adjacent PU like thecollocated PU in the previous frame.

A method performed by predictor 510 for obtaining the motion informationof PU is to use the motion information such as motion vector andreference index of the adjacent PU as the current block motioninformation, which is referred to as motion information merge. Someembodiments utilizes the merging method in generating the predictedblock, though other various unrestricted prediction methods are used.

In case of using the motion information merge method, the motioninformation of the current PU is determined by using motion informationof adjacent PUs (A˜E) in the current frame as illustrated in FIG. 4.Various other adjacent PUs are available without limitation to theexample as shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 8 illustrates the motion information merging process applied to thePUs shown in FIG. 7 to offer the comparable effect as with the PUs inFIG. 2.

An exemplary case applying the motion information merging process willbe described below. In the exemplary case, the CU of size 2N×2N ispartitioned into PUs with each sized 2N×hN as shown in (3) of FIG. 7.

When the partitioning of the CU is into PUs of 2N×hN, the CU of 2N×2N ispartitioned into four 2N×hN (h=½) sized PU1, PU2, PU3 and PU4, as shownin FIG. 8. In case when predictor 510 predicts PU1 and acquire motioninformation of the current PU (i.e. PU1), bitstream generator 550 checkswhether motion information of the adjacent CU's prediction unit (PU) isequal to that of the current PU (PU1) in order to encode the motioninformation of the current PU.

If the current PU and the adjacent CU's prediction unit (PU) have thesame motion information, bitstream generator 550 encodes a merge flagfor indicating merging of the current PU motion information and a mergeindex representing the adjacent block used for the merging. Here,candidate adjacent blocks to be selected for use in merging PU1 are PUslocated within the adjacent CUs (corresponding to A, B, C, D and E) asin FIG. 4. It should be understood that different embodiments of thepresent disclosure have different locations of the adjacent CUs from A,B, C, D and E.

However, candidate adjacent blocks to be selected for use in merging PU2are not the PUs located at the adjacent CUs (corresponding to A, B, C, Dand E), which is different from FIG. 4. In order to merge PU2, adjacentblocks to be considered exclude CU ‘B’ from the adjacent CUs shown inFIG. 11 but include PU1 instead. In other words, PU1 and CUs ‘A, C, Dand E’ are considered to determine whether to merge PU2. Hence, if it isdesired to merge a current PU within current CU, candidates for use inmerging includes not only PUs in the adjacent CUs but also a PU or PUsadjacent to the current PU within the current CU to be encoded.Similarly, to merge PU 3, adjacent blocks to be considered include PU 2and PUs of the adjacent CUs ‘A, C, D, E’. The locations of the adjacentCUs ‘A, C, D, E’ described as to be considered to merge PU 3 forillustrative purpose are not limited to what is shown in FIG. 11 but PUsat other various locations are candidates to consider for merging PU3.

In this way, by incorporating the motion information of other PUs in thecurrent CU including the current PU as candidates for the motioninformation merge, the CU is predicted more precisely while effectingthe same predictive encoding as with PUs of 2N×nU and 2N×nD.

For example, when the PU1 through PU4 in FIG. 11 are sequentiallyverified for their availabilities for motion information merge, if PUs1, 2 and 3 have the same motion information appropriate for merge, thePUs 1, 2 and 3 are encoded in effect with their motion informationmerged into one, whereby approximating the predictive encoding of the PUof 2N×nD. Likewise, if PUs 2, 3 and 4 have the same motion informationentitled to be merged, they are eventually encoded with a single pieceof merged motion information, whereby approximating the predictiveencoding of the PU of 2N×nU.

This effect of merged encoding is similarly applicable to a CUpartitioned into PUs of hN×2N besides the split PUs of 2N×hN. Variousexemplary effects of such motion information merge performed areillustrated in FIG. 8.

Dotted lines in FIG. 8 represent the motion information in merge.According to FIG. 8, by using the motion information merge, the PUs of2N×hN in FIG. 7 bring similar effects of encoding of the 2N×N, 2N×nU and2N×nD PUs in FIG. 2, while the hN×2N PUs in FIG. 7 provide, through themotion information merge, similar effects of encoding of the N×2N, nL×2Nand nR×2N PUs in FIG. 2. For example, in case of doing predictions withthe 2N×hN PUs in FIG. 8, when PU1 is first encoded and encoding of PU2is performed with motion information of PU1 merged, PU1 and PU2 areencoded with an accompanied overhead of insignificant difference fromencoding PU5, that is, encoding the 2N×N PU.

The encoding of the CU by finer PU modes, if the motion informationmerge is applicable, has effectiveness similar to the encoding of the CUby a various shapes of PUs, providing the benefit of having a pluralityof PU modes.

If the CU has the hN×2N PUs in the prediction process, each PU undergoesthe prediction to the total of four prediction sessions for the singleCU. Upon completion of the four prediction sessions, the encodingproceeds through subtractor 520, transformer 530, quantizer 540, inversequantizer 560 and inverse transformer 570.

In order to compare the coding performances of the respective 2N×2N,2N×hN and other PU modes specified in FIG. 7, the resulting values arecompared by using Equation 3.RDcost=Distortion+λ×Rates  Equation 3

In Equation 3, Distortion is a value indicating the difference betweenthe original pixel value and the predicted value generated by predictor510, and the Distortion value for use is SAD in Equation 1 or it isgenerated by different methods for presenting the error value, withoutlimitation to the above mentioned method. Rates represents the totalnumber of bits of the current block encoded after going throughpredictor 510, transformer 530 and quantizer 540, and A representsLagrange coefficients. Low RDcost means high coding performance. Inother words, an optimum PU mode herein such PU mode that has the lowestdifference between the original pixel value and the predicted pixelvalue and has the lowest bit rate after all the coding processes bypredictor 510 through quantizer 540.

Predictor 510 performs a prediction by each PU which is equal to orpartitioned finer than 2N×2N CU. Here, the finely partitioned PUs areshaped into four 2N×hN PUs where h is ½. However, h is also set todifferent values to provide more or less PU partitions than four. h is afractional number smaller than 1. For example, ‘h’ is ½, ⅓ and ¼ amongothers.

In encoding the respective PUs split from a single CU, predictor 510makes the respective predicted blocks of the PUs. A full search methodor diamond search method is used for searching for the predicted blocksfrom the reference frame. However, search methods are not limited tothem. For the sake of effective encoding of motion vectors uponcompletion of the predicted block search, a motion vector prediction isused. As described above, the motion vector prediction method comprisesfinding, among the adjacent PUs in the current frame or PUs in thereference frame, the motion vector prediction value with the leastmotion vector error from the current block motion vector, or any othereffective methods or skipped motion vector prediction.

Description has been provided on the method for merging motioninformation (including motion vector and reference picture index) of thecurrent block (current PU) with motion information of a PU adjacent tothe current PU and with the PU motion information of the current block,and the detailed explanation will not be repeated. This fine PUpartitioning reduces distortions, and the accordingly increased amountof motion information to transmit to the video decoding apparatus isoffset under appropriate conditions by the motion information merge,whereby improving the resultant performance of the video encodingapparatus.

On the other hand, for the inter-prediction, predictor 510 makes blockpartitions as shown in FIG. 2 or 7.

As shown in FIG. 8, predictor 510 sets value ‘h’ to let the hN×2N or2N×hN split PU mode have partition boundaries including those of 2N×N,2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2N and nR×2N PU modes where n is ½. In this case,‘h’ is set to ½k (k: positive integer) such as ½ and ¼ and the like.

In addition, predictor 510 sets value ‘h’ so that the PU mode haspartition boundaries excluding those of 2N×N, 2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2Nand nR×2N PU modes where n is ½. In this case, ‘h’ is set to 2/(2 k+1)where k is positive integer. For example, ‘h’ is ⅔, ⅖ and the like.Further, ‘h’ is set so that the PU mode has partition boundariesincluding some partition boundaries of 2N×N, 2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2N,nR×2N PU modes and excluding other partition boundaries thereof.

In addition, predictor 510 outputs the CU of 2N×2N as is, or performexclusively to 2N×hN or hN×2N PU modes and skip the other PU modes. Forexample, this means not to make partitions into 2N×N, 2N×nU, 2N×nD,N×2N, nL×2n and nR×2N PU modes. Therefore, in this case, the videoencoding apparatus 500 performs encoding by using only 2N×2N, 2N×hN andhN×2N PU modes among the entire inter prediction modes.

Predictor 510 also uses PU modes by partitioning of the CU into 2N×hN orhN×2N or into 2N×N, 2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2n and nR×2N, and in somecases, omit asymmetrically partitioned PU modes. For example, theencoding by 2N×nU, 2N×nD, nL×2N, nR×2N modes, etc., is omitted in orderto reduce overhead accompanied by the encoding.

Predictor 510 skips a part of the subsequent inter predictive encodingdepending on the result of the previous inter predictive encoding. Forexample, predictor 510 is responsive to inter predictive encodingperformances with 2N×2N, 2N×N and N×2N modes, and omits encoding of thePUs of size hN×2N if the 2N×N mode provides the best of the encodingperformances. Predictor 510 omits encoding of the PUs of size 2N×hN ifthe N×2N mode provides the best of the inter predictive encodingperformances.

Additionally, when performing an inter prediction mode encoding,predictor 510 skips encoding by the motion compensation during thesubsequent inter predictive encoding depending on the result of theprevious inter predictive encoding. In this case, encoding by the motioninformation merge is carried out. For example, predictor 510 isresponsive to encoding performances with 2N×2N, 2N×N and N×2N modes andomits encoding by motion compensation and instead perform encoding byexclusively using a motion vector merge if the 2N×N mode provides thebest of the encoding performances.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video decodingapparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

As shown in FIG. 6, video decoding apparatus 600 is adapted to decode,from a bitstream, information on the PU mode that have been determinedby the video encoding apparatus and then performs a predictive decodingon the decoded information. Video decoding apparatus 600 comprises abitstream decoder 610, an inverse quantizer 620, an inverse transformer630, an adder 640 and a predictor 650. All or some components of thevideo decoding apparatus 600, such as the bitstream decoder 610, theinverse quantizer 620, the inverse transformer 630, the adder 640, andthe predictor 650 are implemented by one or more processors and/orapplication-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

Bitstream decoder 610 extracts quantized transform blocks by decoding abitstream.

Besides extraction of the quantized transform blocks from the encodeddata, bitstream decoder 610 decodes or extracts various informationrequired for the decoding operation. Here, the required informationmeans information needed for decoding encoded bit string within encodeddata (i.e., bitstream), such as block type information, motion vectorinformation, transform and quantization type information and othervarious information.

Bitstream decoder 610, by decoding the bitstream that has been encodedby video encoding apparatus 500, extracts prediction informationincluding PU mode information, and transmits the extracted predictioninformation to predictor 650. For example, if video encoding apparatus500 performed prediction on a predetermined CU by using 2N×hN or hN×2N(where, h=½, ⅓, . . . ) splits of PUs, the PU mode informationindicating the partitioning of the CU into 2N×hN or hN×2N PUs isextracted from the bitstream by bitstream decoder 610.

the value of ‘h’, as illustrated in FIG. 8, is set so that the 2N×hN orhN×2N split PU mode have their partition boundaries include thepartition boundaries of PU modes of 2N×N, 2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2N andnR×2N where n is ½. In this case, ‘h’ is set to ½k (k: positive integer)such as ½ and ¼ and the like.

In addition, the value of ‘h’ is set so that the partition boundaries ofthe PUs do not include the partition boundaries of PU modes of 2N×N,2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2N and nR×2N where n is ½ . . . . In this case,‘h’ is set to 2/(2 k+1) where k is positive integer. Further, ‘h’ is setso that the PU mode has partition boundaries including some partitionboundaries of 2N×N, 2N×nU, 2N×nD, N×2N, nL×2N, nR×2N PU modes andexcluding other partition boundaries thereof.

Additionally, bitstream decoder 610 extracts, from the bitstream, amerge flag for each PU and a merge index if the extracted merge flagindicates that the current PU have its motion information encodedthrough merge (indicates merge mode).

Predictor 650 uses the required information for prediction deliveredfrom bitstream decoder 610 to predict the current CU in the same manneras in predictor 510 of video encoding apparatus 500.

Predictor 650 generates the predicted value of the current CU throughdecoding based on information corresponding to one of inter predictionand intra prediction methods. Predictor 650 receives, via bitstreamdecoder 610, information on the predictive encoding scheme determined inpredictor 510 and generates the predicted values for each 2N×hN or hN×2Nsplit PU pursuant to the information on the predictive encoding scheme.

In response to the current PU having its motion information encodedthrough merge, predictor 650 identifies motion information of anadjacent PU corresponding to the value of merge index extracted from thebitstream so as to reconstruct the motion information of the current PU.

As explained in the description of the video encoding apparatus, themerge index indicates which of the adjacent PUs within the current PU tobe reconstructed were used to merge the motion information of thecurrent PU.

For example, with a CU partitioned into PUs as shown in FIG. 11, thecandidate adjacent blocks to be considered for identifying the mergeindex of PU1 are PUs respectively located within adjacent CUs A, B, C, Dand E. In addition, the candidate adjacent blocks to be considered foridentifying the merge index of PU2 are PU1 and PUs within CUs A, C, Dand E; the candidate adjacent blocks for PU3 are PU2 and PUs within CUsA, C, D and E; and the candidate adjacent blocks for PU4 are PU3 and CUsA, C, D and E. As described above, CUs A, C, D and E to be consideredfor the merge index identification are not restricted to the illustratedlocations in FIG. 11. Rather, PUs in other various CUs are considered ascandidate PUs for identifying merge indexes for PU2, PU3 and PU4.

To generate the predicted block of the current CU, predictor 650 ofvideo decoding apparatus 600 according to at least one embodiment of thepresent disclosure operates similar to predictor 510 of video encodingapparatus 500. In other words, in case of inter prediction, predictor650 uses information delivered from bitstream decoder 610 includingmotion information and PU mode information to generate the predictedblock. In case of intra prediction, it receives information to intramode delivered from bitstream decoder 610 to generate the predictedblock. In another case of skip mode, predictor 650 generates thepredicted block through motion compensation by using only motioninformation. In further case of merge mode, predictor 650 generates thepredicted block by using motion information reconstructed based on themerge index delivered from bitstream decoder 610.

Inverse quantizer 620 inversely quantizes the quantized transform blocksextracted from the bitstream by bitstream decoder 610 to generatetransform blocks. The inverse quantization is performed by reversing theprocedure of quantization that was performed by quantizer 540. This isthe same as the method for varying the size of quantization depending onthe scanning, the description of which is not repeated here to avoidredundancy.

Inverse transformer 630 inversely transforms the generated transformblocks to the time domain to reconstruct a residual block of the currentCU. Therefore, the inverse transform is performed by reversing thetransform procedure performed by transformer 530.

Adder 640 reconstructs the original pixel values of the current CU byadding residual signals of the reconstructed residual block and thepredicted pixel values of the predicted block generated by predictor650.

The reconstructed current block is transferred to a frame memory 660 andused by predictor 650 later for predicting another block.

Frame memory 660 stores reconstructed images to enable the generation ofintra predicted blocks and inter predicted block.

An apparatus for encoding/decoding images is implemented according to atleast one embodiment of the present disclosure, by comprising videoencoding apparatus 500 as a video encoder unit and video decodingapparatus 600 as a video encoder unit. Video encoding apparatus 500 isadapted to perform a coding of the images by coding unit (CU) bypartitioning the CU into prediction units (PUs) of size 2N×hN or hN×2N(where h=½, ⅓, . . . ) and perform an intra prediction or an interprediction based on the PUs to generate a predicted block. Videodecoding apparatus 600 is adapted to extract from the bitstream,information on the PUs to reconstruct the current block.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a video encoding method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the video encoding method, video encoding apparatus 500 performs aprediction step S910, a subtraction step S920, a transform step S930, aquantization step S940 and an encoding step S960. Prediction step S910generates predicted pixel values for each PU finely split or splitotherwise from the current CU. Subtraction step S920 subtracts thepredicted pixel value from the original pixel value of the current CU togenerate residual signals. Transform step S930 transforms the generatedresidual signals into frequency domain by using, for example, DCTtransform or wavelet transform. Quantization step S940 quantizes thetransformed residual signals. Encoding step S960 encodes the quantizedtransformed residual signals and information including finely split PUmode information into bitstreams.

Here, prediction step S910 corresponds in operation to predictor 510,subtraction step S920 to subtractor 520, transform step S930 totransformer 530, quantization step S940 to quantizer 540 and encodingstep S950 to bitstream generator 550, and detailed descriptions thereofwill be omitted.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a video decoding method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Video decoding apparatus 600 receives and stores the bitstream of imagevia wired or wireless networks, cables or other medium to reconstructthe video according to an algorithm of a user's choice or of a runningprogram. Video decoding apparatus 600 decodes the bitstream andgenerates predicted pixel values of the current CU based on PUscorresponding to the PU mode information reconstructed from thebitstream. The PU mode information includes PU modes indicating finelysplit PUs. Video decoding apparatus 600 generates residual signals byinversely quantizing and then inversely transforming quantized transformresidual signals reconstructed from the bitstream, and adds thegenerated residual signals to the predicted pixel values in order toreconstruct the image with the original pixel values.

To this end, video decoding apparatus 600 performs a decoding stepS1010, an inverse quantization step S1020, an inverse transform stepS1030, a prediction step S1040 and an addition step S1050. Decoding stepS1010 decodes the bitstream to extract quantized transform residualsignals and mode information including finely split PU modes. Inversequantization step S1020 dequantizes the quantized transform residualsignals. Inverse transform step S1030 transforms the transform residualsignals back to the time domain. Prediction step S1040 generatespredicted pixel values based on PUs corresponding to the PU modereconstructed from the bitstream. Addition step S1050 reconstruct theoriginal pixel value of the current CU by adding the respectivelypredicted pixel values of the current CU in step S1030 to thereconstructed residual signals of the current CU in step S1040.

Here, decoding step S1010 corresponds in operation to bitstream decoder610, inverse quantization step S1020 to inverse quantizer 620, inversetransform step S1030 to inverse transformer 630, prediction step S1040to predictor 650 and addition step S1050 to adder 640, and detaileddescriptions thereof will be omitted.

A video encoding/decoding method according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure is implemented with a video encoding method and avideo decoding method combined according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the videoencoding/decoding method comprises encoding images and decoding images.The encoding of the images comprises encoding the images by coding unit(CU) by partitioning the CU into fine prediction units (PUs); performingan intra prediction or an inter prediction based on the PUs to generatea predicted block; subtracting the predicted block from the currentblock to generate a residual block; transforming the residual block togenerate one or more transform blocks; quantizing the transform blocksto generate quantized transform blocks; and encoding the quantizedtransform blocks and information on the PU mode relating to the finelypartitioned PUs into a bitstream. The decoding of the images comprisesdecoding quantized transform blocks from a bitstream and extractinginformation on the PU mode; inversely quantizing the quantized transformblocks to generate transform blocks; inversely transforming thetransform blocks after the inversely quantizing to reconstruct aresidual block of the current CU; generating a predicted block of thecurrent CU by inter prediction or intra prediction, based on theinformation on the PU mode; and an adder configured to add the residualblock and the generated predicted block to reconstruct the current CU.

Here, the encoding of the images is implemented by the video encodingmethod according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosureand the decoding of the images is implemented by the video decodingmethod according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the description above, although all of the components of theembodiments of the present disclosure have been explained as assembledor operatively connected as a unit, one of ordinary skill wouldunderstand the present disclosure is not limited to such embodiments.Rather, within some embodiments of the present disclosure, therespective components are selectively and operatively combined in anynumber of ways. Every one of the components are capable of beingimplemented alone in hardware or combined in part or as a whole andimplemented in a computer program having program modules residing incomputer readable media and causing a processor or microprocessor toexecute functions of the hardware equivalents. Codes or code segments toconstitute such a program are understood by a person skilled in the art.The computer program is stored in a non-transitory computer readablemedium, which in operation realizes the embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The computer readable medium includes a magnetic recordingmedium and/or an optical recording medium, in some embodiments.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure as describedabove, in case of partitioning a current CU to be encoded into one ormore PUs for generating one or more predicted blocks having predictedvalues approximated to the original pixels of the current CU, theperformance of encoding/decoding is improved. In addition, the presentdisclosure as described above enables a motion information merge betweenPUs in a CU towards an even more efficient encoding/decoding.

Some embodiments as described above are implemented in the form of oneor more program commands that are read and executed by a variety ofcomputer systems and be recorded in any non-transitory,computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recordingmedium includes a program command, a data file, a data structure, etc.alone or in combination. The program commands written to the medium aredesigned or configured especially for the at least one embodiment, orknown to those skilled in computer software. Examples of thecomputer-readable recording medium include magnetic media such as a harddisk, a floppy disk, and a magnetic tape, optical media such as a CD-ROMand a DVD, magneto-optical media such as an optical disk, and a hardwaredevice configured especially to store and execute a program, such as aROM, a RAM, and a flash memory. Examples of a program command include apremium language code executable by a computer using an interpreter aswell as a machine language code made by a compiler. The hardware deviceis configured to operate as one or more software modules to implementone or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments,one or more of the processes or functionality described herein is/areperformed by specifically configured hardware (e.g., by one or moreapplication specific integrated circuits or ASIC(s)). Some embodimentsincorporate more than one of the described processes in a single ASIC.In some embodiments, one or more of the processes or functionalitydescribed herein is/are performed by at least one processor which isprogrammed for performing such processes or functionality.

Although exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have beendescribed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the various characteristics of thedisclosure. That is, it is understood that the present disclosure shouldnot be limited to these embodiments but various changes andmodifications can be made by one ordinarily skilled in the art withinthe subject matter, the spirit and scope of the present disclosure ashereinafter claimed. Specific terms used in this disclosure and drawingsare used for illustrative purposes and not to be considered aslimitations of the present disclosure. Exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure have been described for the sake of brevity andclarity. Accordingly, one of ordinary skill would understand the scopeof the claimed invention is not limited by the explicitly describedabove embodiments but by the claims and equivalents thereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A video decoding method performed by aprocessor, the method comprising: decoding one or more quantizedtransform blocks from a bitstream; extracting prediction unit (PU) modeinformation indicating a prediction unit (PU) mode of a current codingunit (CU) among a plurality of PU modes relating to types of partitionof the current CU into PUs, wherein the plurality of PU modes includes ahorizontally longer mode and a vertically longer mode; inverselyquantizing the one or more quantized transform blocks to generate one ormore transform blocks; inversely transforming the one or more transformblocks to reconstruct a residual block of the current CU; generating oneor more predicted blocks of the current CU by predicting each PU withinthe current CU based on the PU mode; and adding the reconstructedresidual block and the generated predicted block wherein the one or morepredicted blocks is generated by using motion information selected froma plurality of merge candidates corresponding to neighboring blocks,based on a merge index, and the merge candidates are generated bypredetermined positions and priorities corresponding to the positions,wherein the merge candidates are generated in consideration of aposition of a current PU in the current CU and the PU mode, wherein themerge candidates include at least one of a left block A, an upper blockB, an upper-right block C, a left-lower block D and an upper-left blockE and the priorities correspond to an order of the left block A, theupper block B, the upper-right block C, the left-lower block D and theupper-left block E, and wherein at least one of the neighboring blocksis excluded from the merge candidates when the PU mode corresponds tothe horizontally longer mode or the vertically longer mode and theposition of the current PU corresponds to a predetermined condition,without considering motion information of the at least one of theneighboring blocks, wherein the at least one of the neighboring blocksexcluded from the merge candidates is a first neighboring blockcorresponding to a horizontal edge when the PU mode corresponds to thehorizontally longer mode and is a second neighboring block correspondingto a vertical edge when the PU mode corresponds to the vertically longermode.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting the mergeindex of the current PU within the current CU from the bitstream, andwherein the merge index is for indicating a merge candidate among mergecandidates corresponding to neighboring blocks, the indicated mergecandidate corresponding to motion information of the current PU.